Bankest trial coming to a close

The intro from today's DBR article about the Bankest closings:

"E.S. Bankest, the dismantled Miami factoring company accused of obtaining $190 million through fraud, was “basically an empty shell” that survived on lies and deceit for the better part of a decade, federal prosecutors told jurors Monday. After a four-month trial before U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan, prosecutors began closing arguments in what the U.S. government calls the largest bank fraud case in Miami history. Other prosecutors, and then defense attorneys, are scheduled to deliver closing arguments through the end of Wednesday before jurors get the case. On trial are brothers Eduardo and Hector Orlansky and other principals of E.S. Bankest. They are accused by the government of committing multiple counts of bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy. According to an indictment handed up in December 2003, nine defendants collaborated to inflate the value of collateral for loans obtained from Espirito Santo Bank of Florida. The government accuses the Orlansky brothers, who headed E.S. Bankest, and two other former executives, R. Peter Stanham and Ariadna Puerto, of multiple counts of money laundering and bank fraud. “Bankest companies were basically an empty shell and they grew the company that way for 10 years — with air,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Caroline Heck Miller told jurors in U.S. District Court in Miami."

Ted Klein

I haven't really heard any news on Judge Klein's condition. I wanted to share this nice (anonymous) comment, which was posted tonight:

Anonymous said...
Magistrate Klein (who as we all know should be US District Court Judge Klein), needs our thoughts and prayers. He is one of the finest jurists this court has ever seen. He is exceptionally smart, always prepared, asks great questions and is totally fair and just. He also has a great personality and can tell some great jokes.He is admired by so many. He is loved by so many.Let's hope his daily running and healthy lifestyle pulls him through this terrible illness.
9:46 PM

Interesting hearing on Padilla

More developments in the Jose Padilla case emerged from a pretrial hearing on Padilla's motion to suppress. Apparently he was first stopped on the pretext that he had over $10,000 in cash at the airport but had only declared $8,000. Law enforcement was hiding in a closet because they didn't want to spook him, waiting to confront him about a possible terror attack... The hearing continues tomorrow in front of Magistrate Judge Stephen T. Brown. The whole AP article is here. Here's a snippet:

Russell Fincher, an agent in the FBI's New York-based unit investigating Osama bin Laden, testified at a pretrial hearing in Padilla's terrorism support case that he traveled to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in May 2002. He wanted to meet Padilla's plane so that he might uncover al-Qaida's plans.

"I believed there was a terrorist act that was going to happen. I believed he had knowledge of that. I needed his help," Fincher said of Padilla. "I didn't want to arrest him."
During an interview over nearly five hours in an airport conference room, Fincher said Padilla talked freely about his criminal past as a Chicago gang member, his conversion to Islam and his travels in Egypt, Pakistan and elsewhere. But when his story didn't add up, Fincher said he confronted Padilla with terrorist allegations and asked if he would testify before a grand jury about his purported al-Qaida connections.

"He stood up and told me the interview was over and it was time for him to go," Fincher said.
Padilla was then arrested on a material witness warrant, which allows a person with direct knowledge of alleged criminal acts to be taken into custody. A month later, President Bush designated him an "enemy combatant" and he was placed in military custody. He remained there until November, when he was charged in an existing Miami case.

Monday's hearing concerned whether Padilla was officially in law enforcement custody during the interview and, if so, whether he was properly advised of his rights as a suspect. Padilla's lawyers said his statements should be barred from trial if those rights were violated.

"How FBI moles snared terror suspects"

That's the headline of today's Herald article about the now infamous Miami 7 "terror" case. It has many more details than previous press acounts. It explains the initial meeting between the lead defendant, Narseal Batiste, and the FBI this way:

Batiste, a struggling contractor born in Chicago who headed the local branch here of a Moorish religious sect, became friendly with the store's owner after learning that he was going to Yemen on vacation in October. The store owner happened to be an FBI informant.
After the shopkeeper's return, Batiste, with two of his followers present, laid out his vision. Batiste said that he was a member of the Moorish Science Temple -- a sect that blends Christianity, Judaism and Islam -- and that its members were entitled to their own government within the United States. Violence was the only way, he said, and he explained to the store owner that only extreme Islamic groups, such as al Qaeda, could help.
The shopkeeper told the FBI of Batiste's plans. For FBI agents, the threat was serious enough to have him introduce Batiste to another informant, an Arabic man with a thick accent.
The second man was Mohammad, a friend of the store owner's uncle. Batiste pressed the shopkeeper to find out whether the man knew al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but was told that question was off limits.

So far the press has been very pro-defendant. This article is not at all.

Get well

Apparently Magistrate Judge Theodore Klein is seriously ill. We wish him the very best and hope for a speedy recovery.